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Michigan football: Bruce Feldman speaks on how NFL rumors have impacted program

Anthony Broomeby: Anthony Broome02/04/23anthonytbroome
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh’s dalliance with the NFL has reached its conclusion for the 2023 season. He turned down the Denver Broncos’ advances twice and will be staying in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future, presumably on a restructured contract.

Denver wound up bringing in former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, but made several pitches to Harbaugh for the job. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic and Fox Sports dished on what went down between the two sides earlier this week.

“From what I had heard, late last week, this came down to — they seemed to be widely apart on the terms in terms of, like, the years and money,” Feldman said on The Audible podcast alongside Stewart Mandel. “I don’t know if Jim Harbaugh wanted a couple more years than the Broncos were willing to do. I had mentioned this to a source. We were talking about something else and this came up. I said, ‘I thought that was dead,’ and this person said, ‘I don’t think it’s dead until the Broncos have hired a new coach.’

“Here’s where I think this is kind of interesting is I think this has got to be hard for the Michigan players to have heard this now that it’s come out publicly. When I heard it, I was still pretty skeptical because we’ve heard this Jim Harbaugh-to-NFL dance before. But the fact that there were some terms involved leads me to believe it’s like, ‘Ooh.’ When you’re throwing out offers and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we think and this is what we want,’ who knows?”

University of Michigan president Santa Ono announced weeks ago he was informed Harbaugh would return, informing athletic director Warde Manuel of the news.

“I love the relationships that I have at Michigan — coaches, staff, families, administration, president Santa Ono, and especially the players and their families,” Harbaugh said in his statement on Jan. 16. “My heart is at the University of Michigan. I once heard a wise man say, ‘Don’t try to out-happy, happy.’ Go Blue!”

Is this the end of his flirtation with the NFL? From ESPN last week:

‘While some have pointed to the fact that his dalliances with the NFL could go on, one league source predicted this week that the league will move on and Harbaugh is not likely to have many NFL options in the future.”

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